Giving the iPod Nano a home on a Honda dashboard

[Hyeinkali’s] iPod Nano looks right at home on the dashboard of his 2001 Honda Accord. He got rid of the simple LCD clock and the buttons that were used to set it. The hack holds the iPod securely in place, but it remains easy to remove and take with you.

He started by popping out the bezel that holds the clock module and hazard light button in place. The original display was about the same width as the Nano, but he wasn’t interested in mounting the mp3 player under the dash. Since he needed to be able to take it with him to sync his music library he made a space near the bottom of the bezel to accept the connector end of the USB cable while keeping the device accessible. After connecting the other end to power he covered the hole in the bezel with mesh and put everything back together. We’re not sure if audio is piped into the car stereo via a cable or through Bluetooth, but it does feed to the head unit.

I had a Zen Micro back in the day. There were things I liked about it more than my current ipod (esp. the “now playing” list, the replaceable battery, and the lower price). However, it overall wasn’t anywhere near as good a product. Its interface was clunkier, the device itself wasn’t as attractive, the software was abysmal, and when you charged it the bastard lit up like a UFO to the point where I couldn’t leave it plugged overnight in my room. Add this to the fact that Creative is a terrible company and the ipod was, for me at least, just a better buy.

Remember when they told everyone that EAX couldn’t work with Windows Vista unless you bought a new sound card, when even the old cards were doing it entirely in software? I was so glad when game devs just started doing those sorts of effects via sound libraries, and motherboard audio got good enough that a sound card wasn’t so necessary.

The 6th generation iPod Nano doesn’t have Bluetooth and you can see the iPod cable going to the extension cord socket thing that’s common on many Pioneer head units – audio is going over that USB cable.

Creative idea. I think the mesh would look a hell of a lot better if it were straight.

Do not operate while driving.
Those deadly screens in the dash, can be hacked with code that can be bought on line to watch holeywood’s diversions while you attempt to DRIVE!
I won’t let a front seat passenger use a lit-up device while I am driving at night. At least it’s line connected not bluetooth-blueear (cancer is sometimes blue). Is a dental audio link that far away???